2.7.18 - Rainbow Valley To Alice Springs

Ready to rattle and roll before 10 this am after another very chilly night as evidenced by ice INSIDE the swag and frozen dishwater.

Ice inside Greg’s tent.

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A few quick pics of the view in the morning sun. 

Sun rising behind us. 

getting lighter

Jagged rocks.

Zooming in. 

I thought the little tree was quite resiliently hanging on there. 

View in morning sun

We left Rainbow Valley and headed back to the Stuart Highway for a bit before detouring off via Owen Springs Rd through Owen Springs Reserve. 

Listening to radio I leant that yesterday was Territory Day, thus explaining the fireworks we saw over Rainbow Valley last night. 

I also learnt about the Alice Springs Beanie festival which was finishing today. 

Wending our way through river crossings, treed areas and grass plains, we stopped to look at Haunted Tree Bore. 

Self explanatory 

The ruins of the bore. 

Here's me.

View somewhere. 

From there we mooched onto Owen Springs Homestead where we were surprised to find not only the remains of the Homestead but a mobile hotspot in the middle of nowhere. 

Milani made a quick call to Meg.
I phoned a Caravan Park only to be told that they wouldn’t
take bookings so it was pot luck for accommodation.

The hotspot instructions. Only one phone could be
on the spot to receive service. Very clever.

The Owen Springs Homestead. 

It's been restored to this by volunteers. 

Not long after we were back on the bitumen - Larapinta Drive, toward Alice Springs and driving beside the West MacDonnell ranges. 

The Ranges enroute to Alice

Larapinta Drive.

 My Navman had another Caravan Park listed so we headed for that and managed to get sites for us all and Steve and co who were due to arrrive about 6. We settled in - all into showers and fresh clothes, with every other stitch of dirty clothes and pjs and towels and tea towels into the wash. Hung washing out to dry, then we took off over the road to Araluen Cultural Centre to visit the Beanie exhibition and sales. 

They were fantastic. Pictures tell the tale. 

Mary and I bought some. 

The beanies are made by people from all over Oz and sold. There are also a lot made by local Aboriginal women. The radio had indicated that as of this morning they had sold about 4500 beanies and raised $177 000.00 and they were still selling till end of today. Funds are shared 70% to the maker, 30% to the Festival which is then ploughed back onto the festival and to teaching the skills and so the cycle goes. 

Beautiful bird.

A dragon

The colours were brilliant. 

A wall of awesome beanies. 

Clever.

Kingfisher.

This depiction of a grass tree, was spot on. 

Very cute.

Soft colours.

Beanies on some of the other sculptures etc around the arts centre. 

Hippo Hat.

Beanies EVERYWHERE. These ladies were still making
beanies. 

The Teabag Beanie I bought. 

After our visit to the Festival, we headed off shopping. Mary, Phil and I found a lovely cafe for a coffee, Uccello. Yummo. 

Ahhh civilisation.

We lashed out. 

The owner of the cafe was talking to some staff about the restaurant, so I asked which it was  to learn that the family also had an Italian Restaurant of 30 years Casa Nostra and Uccello had been open 3 weeks. We enjoyed both immensely.

As we were leaving Uccello Phil noticed Rhubarb Porridge so breaky tomorrow is sorted.